1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to food and beverage apparatus, especially to broilers with opposed heaters. In another aspect, the invention relates to cooking stoves of the type generally referred to as braziers, suited for cooking with rotating and elevating.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Outdoor cooking stoves or grills, often referred to as braziers or barbecue grills, enable the convenient preparation of foods in almost any location ranging from a backyard patio to a campground. These types of stoves are vastly popular for numerous reasons and have gathered a following of aficionados. Among the many reasons for this popularity is the removal of smoke and heat from the kitchen or living area, which causes the outdoor grill to be a highly appropriate cooking device in warm climates and summer season. The release of cooking heat into an outdoor locale is inconsequential to indoor comfort, which frees the chef to exercise greater creativity in cooking techniques than might be unwelcome within an indoor kitchen. Thus, chefs have increased freedom to apply sauces to the food and to employ smoke-inducing fire additives that generate scented smoke to significantly enhance flavor.
One of the few drawbacks to cooking on an outdoor grill is that it requires more attention than typical indoor cooking on appliances with sophisticated electronic controls. The outdoor cooking grill typically provides a gridiron surface for supporting the food and has a flame under the gridiron and food. This arrangement results in a tendency for fats and sauces to drip into the flame. Because the position of a gridiron is usually immediately above the fire, the drips add fuel to the fire and cause flare-ups. The disadvantage resulting from flare-ups is that such random and unpredictable bursts of extra heat can char the food very quickly, often before the chef notices. Another disadvantage is that heat is regulated with low precision and with little knowledge of accurate heat level. At best, an outdoor grill might have a simple thermometer on the grill hood, which tells little about temperatures at the gridiron. In fuel gas grills, changing the height of the gas flame makes the adjustment. In charcoal fueled grills, the adjustment is made by advance selection of how much combustible charcoal fuel will be ignited for the cooking session. In either or both types of grill, the height of the gridiron above the fire might be variable. All of these adjustments have speculative impact on temperature at the gridiron. An unexpectedly hot fire can char the food before the chef realizes how hot the fire has become, while a cooler than expected fire can extend the cooking time or result in undercooked food.
Techniques for solving some of these problems are known but related problems appear to have prevented their practical use. One solution to the problem of flare-ups is to move the heat source away from the usual under-food position to a lateral position. Modern barbecue grills utilize this solution only with the rotisserie unit by providing a backside heat source. Unfortunately, as a practical matter, this solution is almost unknown for application to foods cooked on the gridiron surface. However, several examples from prior patent art show that lateral fire placement is a known technique. The following United States patents demonstrate the state of this art.
U.S. Pat. No. 47,176 to Wetmore, which dates back to the Civil War era, shows a heat panel holding burning wood or coal. A vertical press basket holding food is placed in front of the heat panel. The entire heat panel is set in the door of a cooking stove to assist in maintaining a fire. While this patent suggests cooking from only one side, it appears to be an early teach of the vertical cooking technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,398,157 to Segar shows a gas fired “griller.” This British terminology evidently refers to an indoor style of oven rather than a barbecue grill. The griller employs opposed vertical heat sources with a vertical food basket. A conveyor belt supports food in vertical holders and conveys the food through a cooking zone between the heat panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,314,772 to Corra shows a grill with opposed, vertical charcoal burners and a central press basket. A notable feature is a mechanical control employing a spreading linkage for adjusting the spread of the charcoal burners to control heat in the cooking zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,335,217 to Tate shows a grill with opposed vertical charcoal burners with a central rotisserie positioned in the cooking zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,441,190 to Fuller shows a barbecue grill with vertical fireboxes and with notched or serrated adjustments for positioning the fireboxes at predetermined intervals of closeness to the cooking zone. A food basket fits in the cooking zone between the fireboxes. End plates support the food basket in guide slots that hold the basket in vertical position in the cooking zone between the fireboxes.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,923,229 to Halford shows a grill with charcoal burning heat panels at opposite sides of a cooking zone. An ash drawer below each heat panel aids cleaning. A vertical press basket is inserted into the cooking zone from the front of the grill, between the heat panels. This grill combines a separate top grid for horizontal cooking.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,946,275 to Compton shows a grill with vertical heat panels and a vertical press basket, all supported from a set of rails allowing movement among these components for regulating heat in the central cooking zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,170 to Wilson discloses a charcoal grill that uses a reduced amount of charcoal. Opposed heat panels employ reflector surfaces to reflect heat toward the central cooking zone from a small amount of charcoal on the floor of each heat panel. A food basket is supported for rotisserie motion and also can be locked into various static rotational positions within the cooking zone
U.S. Pat. No. 3,182,585 to Rensch et al shows a grill with vertical heat panels and a vertical food basket between them. A handle on the food basket can adjust the separation between the food basket and heat panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,351 to Sundholm shows a cooker with opposed, variably separable fireboxes holding charcoal. Food is clamped in a basket, and hanger rods suspend the basket vertically between the fireboxes. A pan collects ashes and drippings.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,585 to Scherer shows opposed heat panels each with its own ash drawer, and a central trough that catches drips.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,302,555 to Burwell shows a vertical grill basket exposed to opposed upright cylinders filled of burning charcoal. A central drip pan catches both drippings and ash.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,838 to Luschen et al shows a vertical grill with a drain for drippings that extends to an external catch pan.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,237 to Mecherlen shows opposed heat panels and a central rotisserie press basket in the cooking zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,418 to Cairns shows a combination of opposed heat panels with a central press basket. These components slide on a rail such that the press basket remains centered in the cooking zone between the heat panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,295 to Faraj patent shows a grill with opposed fireboxes in a central cooking basket that folds for storage.
While variably separated vertical heat panels are helpful for controlling flare-ups and simultaneously cooking food from two sides, the placement of food in a press basket between two heat sources presents a problem. The hot cooking zone tends to be unbearable to human hands, which restricts the chef's customary free access to the food on an outdoor grill. Although long handled tools can be used for some purposes, such tools are not the answer to all aspects of the problem. The two-sided heat source creates the very hot and hostile atmosphere near the food, regardless of whether the food is in a fixed position basket or a rotating in rotisserie basket. In the prior art, the hot conditions in the cooking zone require that the press basket be lifted from its support structures to remove it from the cooking zone for many types of attention. Lifting a hot basket full of food is awkward and difficult. Once the hot basket has been lifted from the cooking zone, the chef faces a further problem of locating a suitable surface to receive the basket with its cargo of hot food, dripping with cooking juices. If the chef wishes to add a sauce, he likely must perform this task at a location remote from the grill, creating the additional problem of handling and transporting a basket of food that now is dripping with sauce. Similarly, filling or emptying a press basket likely must be performed at a remote location from the grill, due to the problem of unbearable heat present in the cooking zone.
These restrictions and difficulties in food handling with a two-sided vertical cooking grill may account for the evident lack of success for this type of grill. The inventor has found not a single example of such a grill to be commercially available, despite the several patents relating to vertical grills. Therefore, a likely conclusion is that chefs have found such grills to be unsatisfactory due to the unsolved problems of convenient and ready food handling that is enjoyed with common top-gridiron barbecues.
It would be desirable to resolve the problems of food handling in a grill employing a central cooking zone between vertical heat panels. In particular, it would be desirable to have a means to load and empty a food basket without unduly risking discomfort and burns to the chef's hands, and without having to remove the basket from the grill. Similarly, it would be desirable to have a means for the chef to access the food to apply sauces and the like during the cooking session without unduly risking discomfort and burns to the chef's hands and without having to remove the basket from the grill.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the method and apparatus of this invention may comprise the following.